How to fix iPhone 8 Plus that freezes and slows down after installing iOS 11.3.1

Some #iPhone8 users have been complaining about their phone becoming slower and regularly freezing after upgrading to iOS 11.3.1. If you’re one of these unfortunate iPhone owners, make sure to browse through our suggestions to fix your issue.

If you are looking for solutions to your own #iOS issue, you can contact us by using the link provided at the bottom of this page. When describing your issue, please be as detailed as possible so we can easily pinpoint a relevant solution. If you can, kindly include the exact error messages you are getting to give us an idea where to start. If you have already tried some troubleshooting steps before emailing us, make sure to mention them so we can skip them in our answers.

Problem #1:  iPhone 8 Plus keeps freezing and becomes slow after installing iOS 11.3.1

My Iphone 8 Plus, of late keeps freezing and becomes unresponsive for few minutes and then after few minutes starts to work normally, and then again after few minutes becomes frozen and unresponsive. i was never having this issue earlier, but off late this issue has started. My iphone issue started after installing iOS 11.3.1. And also, my home button seems to have become hard of late for any actions, as it feels hard while pressing…..please kindly help me in resolving the issue…… Sham_raju

Solution: Hi Sham_raju. There’s a long list of possible reasons why your iPhone 8 Plus suddenly becomes unresponsive or slowing down. The issue may or may not be tied to the new iOS 11.3.1 update. To fix the problem, you want to do our suggestions below.

Restart your device regularly. This is not just a potential solution but a highly recommended maintenance tip. Restarting a computer system like your iPhone 8 provides subtle benefits to both hardware and software. It can also fix temporary bugs from time to time so make sure that you restart your iPhone 8 before doing the rest of the steps below. Just press and hold the Power button, swipe to turn the device off, and wait for the system to come back. If that won’t fix the freezing or slow performance issue, do the rest of the troubleshooting steps.

Reset network settings. This next troubleshooting step is mainly done when a user notices an issue with internet connection speed, or if apps tend to load contents from the internet significantly slower than before. Resetting network settings clears old network configuration that may become outdated after the update. Here’s how to do it:

  1. From the Home screen, open Settings app.
  2. Tap General.
  3. Tap Reset.
  4. Tap Reset Network Settings.
  5. If prompted, enter the passcode.
  6. Tap Reset Network Settings button to confirm.

Resetting your network settings will delete all wifi networks you’ve connected to before as well as their passwords. Make sure that you have their passwords before doing this step.

Clean up storage. If you’re a heavy user, chances are, you’ve already accumulated a lot of digital stuff at this time. A cluttered internal storage can lead to slow downs and may contribute to the general freezing issue that’s being caused by an upgraded iOS software. To ensure that you eliminate this possibility, make sure that you do some clean up. Head over to Settings > General > Storage & iCloud Usage and select Manage Storage in order to check how much storage you have left. From here, you can effectively manage storage by deleting some non-system critical files such as photos, videos, documents, etc.

Install app updates. Not many iOS users realize that outdated apps can cause problems as well. This is especially rampant after an update since apps may suddenly become incompatible with a new operating system. That’s why it’s just as important to update apps after installing an update for iOS too. Ideally, developers are supposed to release updates for their products to minimize bugs and incompatibility issues with new iOS versions so be sure to download app updates whenever they become available.

Stop automatic downloads. While we strongly recommend that you update apps, the automatic feature on your iPhone to download app updates can significantly slow down the system. When installing an update, the entire system is basically redirecting resources to make it happen so if there’s a lot of apps that need to be updated, you’ll most likely notice that your iPhone may become sluggish throughout the duration. While does not suggest there’s a problem with your phone, it can become a frustrating experience especially if you need your phone to work normally as you’re used to. So, if your iPhone 8 appears to slow down while it’s trying to install app updates, consider stopping update installation temporarily by disabling automatic downloads feature. Here’s how:

Go to Settings > iTunes & App Store. Once you’re there, you’ll want to toggle the switch to turn off Updates located in the Automatic Downloads section. You might toggle the other options off as well.

Turn off widgets. Widgets are mostly useful but if there’s a lot of them on your device, they can really affect the general performance of your iPhone. If you can’t seem to figure out the cause of the freezing issue on your iPhone, try stopping widgets and see if that will help. To do that, go back to your Home screen and swipe to the right. Then, scroll all the way to the bottom of the list and tap Edit. once you see a long list of your app widgets, disable them by tapping on the red circle with the white line and tapping Remove.

Don’t worry, app widgets won’t go away for good. You can always flip them back if you don’t think they’re the ones causing the freezing issue on your device.

Clear browser cookies and data. This troubleshooting step is recommended if you happen to be experiencing issues with your web browser such as safari. After some time, a web browser’s cache can get too large, which can demand resources from such as CPU allocation and memory. To address the issue, make sure that you clear your browser’s history from time to time. If you use the default Safari browser, here’s how to do that:

  1. Open Settings app.
  2. Tap Safari.
  3. Scroll down to Clear History and Website Data and tap it.

The steps above will clear your Safari’s browsing history, cookies, and other data.

If you’re using a third party browser, use Google to find the steps to clear its history and data.

Background Refresh. Background Refresh is a convenient feature for those who constantly need updated data for their apps. Be enabling Background Refresh, apps that regularly need new updates like social media apps, email, and similar ones, will receive new content even if you’re not actively using them. The thing is, this background service can also potentially eat up a lot of computing power (and your data if you rely on cellular connectivity most of the time). While this feature has been taken into consideration by Apple in making sure that performance of their devices will not be impacted, it’s not perfect. We suggest that you turn Background Refresh off if you don’t need to regularly update your apps. For example, if you’re an avid Facebook user, you can still get new contents in a few seconds by manually pulling down your News Feed page. It only takes a fraction of a second to do and can potentially help in fixing your slow performance issue.

To disable Background Refresh:

  1. Tap Settings.
  2. Tap General.
  3. Tap Background App Refresh and toggle Background Refresh off.

Alternatively, you can turn off Background Refresh for each app under Settings > General Background App Refresh but it can be a demanding task if you have hundreds of apps.

Reduce Your Animations. iPhone animations makes your iOS experience more interesting but it does come at a cost. By enabling animations, your iPhone is really working harder every time. This means that your battery drains a lot faster day and day out, which in turn can shorten the battery life of your device in the long run. It also can contribute to slow performance issues. Try minimizing or turning off animations entirely to save power and to potentially improve performance. Here’s how:

  1. Open Settings app.
  2. Tap General.
  3. Tap Accessibility and toggle Reduce Motion on. This feature is responsible for showing bubble effects on Messages app among other things. Turning it off means you’ll no longer see its special effects.

Alternatively, you can also reduce transparency and blur effects to improve performance. To do that, go Settings >  Accessibility > Increase Contrast and and then tap the toggle to turn on the Reduce Transparency function.

Factory reset. Should not one of these tips will help in fixing the freezing or slow performance issue on your iPhone 8, consider wiping your device by doing a factory reset. Make sure to back your personal data up first to avoid losing the. Once you’re ready, follow the steps below:

  1. Open Settings app.
  2. Tap General.
  3. Tap Reset.
  4. Tap Erase All Content and Settings.
  5. If prompted, enter your passcode.
  6. Tap Erase iPhone.

Problem #2: iPhone 8 battery losing power fast after screen was replaced

I had my screen replaced by a third party (stupidly…without enough research or advice)…and I am now having serious battery drain (as of the next day). The phone is only 7-8 months old and I never had any battery issues before. Now it goes from 100 to 60 without any use at all. When speaking on the phone it went from 90 to 30 percent in just 10 minutes. The technician said I can bring it back in for him to have a look at it, but also stated that “the battery and screen are separate so it shouldn’t have caused an issue.” Could there be a connection problem? Things just don’t seem the same following the repair (glitches, slow, blue-ish tint to the glass, battery drain, and taking longer to charge).  Have you heard of this happening after a screen replacement? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance. — Becca

Solution: Hi Becca. A lot of bad things can occur if you let a non-Apple certified person do a hardware repair on an iPhone device. That’s not to say only Apple or its trained techs can fix hardware issues on iPhones but since there’s often no guarantee given to third party repairs, any misdiagnosis or repair fault will most likely cause severe hardware malfunction. Frankly, it’s hard for us to tell if the technician that repaired your phone has messed up the system. There’s a chance that he didn’t but the replacement parts he used may be substandard and does not meet the minimum requirements for your device. It’s quite easy to order a replacement part online nowadays but the thing is, some of these vendors may actually be selling inferior parts. The most that you can do right now is to return the phone to the shop that did the repair. Hopefully, the technician who repaired the device can figure out where the battery drain issue is coming from and rectify the situation.


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If you happen to have a problem with your own iPhone, let us know about it and we will do our best to post them and their solutions  in our upcoming articles. You can use this link to contact us for assistance. We can’t guarantee an answer to every question but rest assured that we will exhaust everything on our end to help you.

Be as detailed as possible when describing your problem to help us diagnose your issue easily. If you can include error messages, popups, attempted troubleshooting steps, and circumstances leading to the problem, that would be very helpful.

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